Maddie stomped and banged, making her displeasure as clear as she could as she wielded her broom, dust motes swarming around her.

It wasn’t fair!

None of it was her fault. Not really. She couldn’t have known what would happen. And besides, things probably wouldn’t have been any different even if the ladder hadn’t been there. All that damned girl had had to do was look up. But she was being punished for it, just the same.

Placing the ladder out was meant to be a laugh. She’d found it amusing to hint of the wondrous settlement cradled in the branches above, if only passersby had the eyes to see. How was she to have known that a brat with the Sight would wander past?

Maddie glared at the dust piled into the corner.

If the elders had allowed her to travel into the outside world, maybe she would have known that the strange white rectangle the girl tapped at was capturing images of their town. They had only themselves to blame…

She sighed, slumping down to sit against the wall. As much as she hated to admit it, she supposed it was her fault, at least in part. After all, it was her face – and, more importantly, her wings – that had been plastered all over the human’s ini-ter-neti. The sounds of loud voices and trampling feet drifted up from the woodland below.

It was her fault that the humans now had proof that fairies existed.

This post is for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. This week’s theme is Stairs, Steps, Ladders. As soon as I saw the topic I knew what I had to share pictures of – the ladder beside the stream has been one of my favourite things to photograph this year.

The piece of flash fiction I’ve included is one I wrote whilst sitting on the stream bank right next to the ladder. I thought you might like to read it.

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Published by Louise Bunting

Louise is a writer, poet and photographer who feels most at home when out and about, watching, photographing, and writing about the flora and fauna to be found along the lanes and in the meadows of her local area. She can happily spend hours lost in a field full of wildflowers.
View all posts by Louise Bunting

I’m glad you enjoyed it, Cybele. They may well have to flee, though at the moment they’re just laying low and hoping the pictures get dismissed as a hoax… I think they’re maybe being a little overly optimistic! Thanks for visiting. 🙂

Thank you, Maniparna. 🙂 I find the whole area, with the stream, the trees and the wildflower meadow, to be incredibly inspiring. I seem to write most of my stories and poetry whilst I’m down there these days! I’m glad you enjoyed it.

I’m araid the loud voices and trampling feet mean others are coming to see for themselves. Hopefully, the faries can fly away for a while or hide where they can not be seen. Perhaps they can go back when things calm down. Cute story and a good example how a simple little action to get a laugh can cause serious problems.

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